Animation veteran Tom Minton wrote some eloquent words about John Dorman who passed away last week. I met him only once, and after reading Tom’s words, regret not having had the chance to know him better. Here is Tom’s beautiful remembrance:

In addition to being a prolific and experienced creative talent, John Dorman was a near-mythic character with an epic sense of the absurd. He was much more than a storyboard artist or art director, as anyone who worked for him in the early to mid 1980’s can attest. He was especially adept at helping gifted people (even a few legends) once their industry had hung them out to dry. In 1983 he paid a talented young storyboard apprentice named Dan Riba two hundred bucks over weekly union scale just because he knew that beginning wage was not enough to live on.

I witnessed examples of John’s boundless energy, craziness and generosity of spirit over and over while working in his Ruby Spears storyboard/development unit. The recently-publicized 1980’s Jack Kirby development paintings now being hawked by Ruby-Spears and the Kroffts were all done under Joe Ruby’s and John’s supervision. Jim Woodring, Duncan Marjoribanks, Kathy Altieri, James Gallego, Kenny Thompkins, Ted Blackman, Tim Burgard, Rick Hoberg, Steve Swaja, Noreen Beasley, Teresa Birch, Brian Burr Chin, Keith Tucker, David Silverman, Alfredo Alcala, Thom Enriquez, Kurt Conner, Bob Kline, Dan Riba, Doug Wildey, Gil Kane and Jack Kirby and me (please correct if I’ve forgotten anyone) were all staffers in John’s legendary Los Angeles Bastards crew at one point or another.

John defined ‘intense’ and could be tough to please but ultimately took the people he believed in more seriously than he did himself. Through it all, John couldn’t help but speak truth to power, even when it cost him dearly. Those who dealt with John in his decline didn’t experience the real person and judged him harshly. People tended to either love or loathe John but they did not tend to forget him. At his best, he also defined ‘courageous.’

The funniest thing you’ll read today: a commentary by “John Lasseter”.

(Thanks, Pedro Nakama)

After learning about the obscene pay of Viacom’s top honchos, it saddens me to report that Disney’s CEO Bob Iger is barely managing to eke out a living. According to the Associated Press, the Disney Company awarded him only $28 million in 2010, or $55 million less than Viacom’s Philippe Dauman.

Iger’s compensation breaks down as following: a base salary of $2 million, a performance-related bonus of $13.5 million, and stock options valued at $11.8 million. The hard-luck Disney chief also earned $798,433 in additional compensation including use of company aircraft and security-related costs. His compensation package was attributed to a 24 percent in Disney’s share price at the end of the company’s fiscal year on October 2. Also, Disney’s fiscal 2010 net income rose 20 percent to $3.96 billion and revenue grew 5 percent to $38.06 billion. Click here to download the 118-page PDF of Disney’s SEC filing.

Drawing by John Dorman (left) and still from “Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero” directed, written and produced by Boyd Kirkland

The animation community lost two major talents last weekend—Boyd Kirkland (1950-2011) and John Dorman (1952-2011). Click on their names to read their obits on the Animation Guild Blog.

Kirkland was a director of many classic episodes of the groundbreaking American superhero cartoon Batman: The Animated Series. He also directed X-Men: Evolution and directed, wrote, boarded, and produced at numerous studios since entering the business in 1978. More thoughts about his passing can be found at Comics Continuum.

John Dorman had worked in animation since 1974, primarily as a board artist, designer and art director. At Ruby-Spears, he supervised the development department where he brought on greats like Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, and Doug Wildey. His list of credits range from Ralph Bakshi’s Hey Good Lookin’ to Spumco’s The Ripping Friends to Disney’s Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas.

There are some nice memories of Dorman on Buzz Dixon’s blog including this memorable tale:

While working on the animated Moses film, Prince of Egypt, John was assigned the task of storyboarding the parting of the Red Sea. The Exec in charge had some Strong Ideas how the story should be told, or rather, re-told. Specifically, to make it more “female friendly”, the Exec ordered the scene written with Moses’ wife breaking his staff across her knee & telling him to have faith in himself if he wanted to part the sea.

John was not a very spiritual, much less religious man, but he knew enough about the Bible to know camel dung when he smelled it. Still, a job was a job & John needed the money, so he storyboarded the scene as written…but he also “plused” it a bit.

John turned the storyboard in and the Exec smiled at how well John had interpreted the Exec’s ideas, then noticed something and frowned. “This is all wonderful work,” the Exec said to John, “but who’s this figure here? The one in the cape with the horned helmet and a big hammer?”

“Oh, that’s Thor,” John said. “I figured since you were [m]ucking around with the Bible I might as well throw him in.”

Alexander Chen’s Conductor is a lovely marriage of automation and artistry that transforms the New York subway system into a stringed instrument. Built in HTML5, Flash and Javascript, the experimental piece runs through a 24-hour loop of the MTA schedule. To play with an interactive version that allows you to replay notes, visit MTA.me where it shows the trains departed in the last minute, then continues accelerating through a 24-hour loop. Read more details about the project at Alex’s website.

I went to a Cracker Barrel for the first time last weekend where I discovered this exclusive CD they carry (buy it here). The stock photo of Walt holding a pointer that kind of looks like a conductor’s baton is a nice touch. If Cracker Barrel can fool customers into believing what they serve qualifies as food, then there’s no reason they shouldn’t be able to convince their clientele that Disney was some kind of a music legend.